Profile: Britta Le Va (photographer of the Cairo Museum)

Egypt Today (Nadine El-Sayed)

There are few who can claim to be as deeply involved in such a variety of Egypt-related work. It was Le Va’s keen photographic eye that inspired Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, to ask her to photograph the Cairo Museum, its counterparts in Luxor and Aswan, even excavation sites. Le Va’s photos continue to appear in Hawass’ books and slides; likewise, the specific interests born of this project continue to influence her future work.

Her relationship with what she calls an “epic” place, lives on much in the same way it began: books — particularly the novels of Naguib Mahfouz. “Mahfouz has enriched my life like nobody else. I lived in his writing, in his mind and soul for many years,” she says, adding in a voice trembling with emotion, “His death left a huge abyss in my heart.’

Before visiting El-Gamalia, the neighborhood featured often in Nobel laureate’s works, Le Va was haunted by the first paragraph in Midaq Alley: “Which Cairo do I mean? That of the Fatimids, the Mamluks or the Sultans.” She decided to seek the answers for herself, photographing visual representations of passages in Mahfouz’s novels.

“Most of my photographs are about zeroing in on a detail and leaving the rest in the shadows of our imagination. I had endless lists of places and objects and people copied out of his books, and everyday I went to the Gamalia to find an image for my list.” Those photos eventually were published as a book titled The Cairo of Naguib Mahfouz.

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